In a series of pictures posted by Vanity Fair, the pair unveil their new series set at the Dutton ranch a century ago. In times of overwhelming change, tradition can be vital for survival. Knowing how things were done before, understanding what still works, and discarding what doesn’t can be a crucial part of moving forward. This is what brings Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren’s longtime frontier couple to the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in the upcoming series 1923. Tradition—and unstoppable change. Set a century before Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III holds together his family’s sprawling Montana empire in America’s most popular TV show, the contemporary Yellowstone series, this latest spin-off from creator Taylor Sheridan explores what life was like for the second and third generation of Duttons to work that land. They find themselves turning back to the first generation for guidance. A lot has changed in the 40 years since James and Margaret Dutton (played by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in the predecessor series, 1883) brought their family to this territory. Exactly what became of them by the time of 1923 is a mystery the show will reveal, but suffice to say their children, now in their late 30s and 40s, and grandchildren, now in their 20s, have come to rely on a new matriarch and patriarch as they confront the rise of mechanization, the growth of local government, and competition for resources from other ranchers. Their father’s brother, Jacob Dutton (Ford), and his wife, Cara (Mirren), now lead the family. The complete article can be read over at Vanity Fair. Helen’s promotional images can be found in the photo gallery.

Taylor Sheridan‘s limited series 1923 has turned out to be such a sprawling saga that he’ll need two seasons to get it done, according to Deadline. 101 Studios and MTV Entertainment Studios have given a thumbs up to Sheridan’s ambitions for the Paramount+ limited series, and sources said that negotiations are underway to bring back the cast for another season. Each 1923 season will be eight episodes, starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and a cast of bright young actors playing the three young sons and two daughters. While the bulk of the action focuses on the construction of the sprawling Yellowstone ranch in Montana, the series is also shooting in South Africa, Tanzania, and Malta, to give a sense of the saga’s scope. All this is happening while the Taylor Sheridan Universe continues to spin. Yellowstone, the series that started it all, returns for a fifth season with a two-hour-episode premiere on Paramount Network on November 13. The series continues to grow in popularity, with the Season 4 finale viewed by an audience of 10 million. The Yellowstone premiere leads into the first episode of Tulsa King, the new drama Sheridan created as a star vehicle for Sylvester Stallone, with Terence Winter serving as showrunner. Jeremy Renner and the cast of Mayor of Kingstown are set to return for a second season.

Consequence TV has a lenghty profile and interview with Helen Mirren for the recent premiere of “Documentary Now”: It’s been five months since I spoke with Helen Mirren about hosting the IFC spoof series Documentary Now!, and I still haven’t gotten over her saying that she doesn’t think she’s funny. “I’m never comfortable with comedy,” she says, to be exact. “I’m so out of my depth with comedy. The only way I can deal with it is to be as serious as I possibly can be, if you know what I mean. I think if I was ever a part of a comedy team, I would definitely be the straight man. I wouldn’t be the funny one. I would be the one to set the joke up.” It’s an opinion that comes from her deep respect for the genre: “I think much too seriously so I love watching comedy. I’m very admiring, especially on film, comedy is very difficult. I’m very admiring of people who do comedy well on film. I think it’s easier to do it live because film is so technical to maintain the timing and the lightness of improvisational quality on film, it’s very difficult. But no, I’m not very good at comedy.” The complete interview can be read here.

The list of narrators for the audiobook version of Bob Dylan’s upcoming book has come to light, and it reads like a who’s who of Oscar contenders from the past few decades, along with the author himself doing some of the reading. According to Variety, the lineup of voice talent reading chapters from “The Philosophy of Modern Song” aloud includes Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright and Renée Zellweger. “The Philosophy of Modern Song” is a collection of essays about 66 different songs Dylan considers great pieces of songwriting. It comes out Nov. 8 from Simon & Schuster. Word of the audiobook readers follows the revelation last month of the 66 tunes Dylan is tackling in the forthcoming book. It will include his evaluations of classic songs written and/or recorded by greats like Jimmy Reed, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Nina Simone, Elvis Costello and Townes Van Zandt, along with perhaps less expected picks like Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman” and Rosemary Clooney’s “Come On-a My House.” The audiobook will be released on November 1, 2022, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon..

TV Guide has assembled all latest cast additions and character information on Paramount+’s “1923”, which is currently shooting and scheduled for a streaming premiere this December. The newest cast member is Robert Patrick, who will play Sheriff William McDowell, a friend of the Dutton family, according to Deadline. Patrick’s casting comes the day after it was announced that Westworld actor Brandon Sklenar has been cast as Spencer Dutton, “Jacob Dutton’s (Ford) nephew, and John Dutton Sr.’s (Dale) brother, who has witnessed the horrors of World War I,” Variety reported. The spin-off, which was originally titled 1932, takes place during the Prohibition era following World War I, with Montana experiencing an economic collapse ahead of the Great Depression. This sets the story about 30 or 35 years before Kevin Costner’s character, John Dutton III, was born, and about 40 years after the events of 1883. The official show description reads, “1923 focuses on the Dutton family’s next two generations as they struggle to survive historic drought, lawlessness and Prohibition, and an epidemic of cattle theft; all battled beneath the cloud of Montana’s great depression, which preceded the nation by almost a decade.” Here’s the main cast list for 1923:

Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton, the patriarch of the Yellowstone ranch, husband to Cara Dutton, and brother of James Dutton.
Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton, the wife to Jacob Dutton and family matriarch.
Darren Mann as Jack Dutton, John Dutton Sr.’s son and great-nephew to Jacob Dutton. He is a dedicated rancher who is deeply loyal to his family.
Michelle Randolph as Elizabeth Strafford, a feisty and capable young woman set to marry into the Dutton family.
James Badge Dale as John Dutton Sr., the oldest nephew and right-hand man of Jacob Dutton.
Marley Shelton as Emma Dutton, the dutiful wife of John Dutton Sr. and the mother of Jack Dutton.
Brian Geraghty as Zane, a fiercely loyal ranch foreman.
Aminah Nieves as Teonna Rainwater, a young woman at a government residential boarding school.
Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra, a British woman who meets one of the Duttons abroad.
Sebastian Roché, character details unconfirmed.
Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton, Jacob Dutton’s nephew and John Dutton Sr.’s (Dale) brother. Spencer has witnessed the horrors of World War I.
Robert Patrick as Sheriff William McDowell, a friend of the Dutton family.

The first full trailer for Shazam! Fury of the Gods has just landed online, giving us a glimpse of Dame Helen Mirren in action as one of the film’s central villains. In the new DC Extended Universe film, coming to cinemas this December, Mirren plays Hespera, one of the daughters of Atlas along with Kalypso, played by Lucy Liu, who make up the film’s central villains. They’ll take on Zachary Levi’s returning hero Billy Batson/Shazam, who is seen in the trailer struggling to bring his ‘Shazamily’ of super-powered foster siblings together, while still indulging in the fun of being a boy in a superhero’s body. The trailer was released during Warner Bros Theatrical’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, which also saw an appearance from Johnson dressed as Black Adam to hype up the crowd. In a message recorded with Zegler for the panel, Mirren said she “absolutely loved playing Hespera” and that she’s “such a delightful baddie and a bad ass”. Shazam! Fury of the Gods will be released in cinemas on 21st December 2022.

According to Digital Spy, new set photos from the set of Fast X have confirmed that Dame Helen Mirren will reprise her role in the street racing action franchise. Mirren will play Magdalene ‘Queenie’ Shaw once again, as confirmed in filming photos with Fast & Furious protagonist Vin Diesel, who plays Dom Toretto. The two actors were photographed as they filmed scenes for the upcoming movie at the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. Mirren first appeared in the role of criminal mastermind Queenie – the mother of Owen and Deckard Shaw – in 2017, with an uncredited cameo in The Fate of the Furious. She reprised the role in Hobbs & Shaw and F9 and was expected to return in Fast X, but her involvement hadn’t been officially confirmed until now. The tenth film in the main franchise, Fast X is directed by Louis Leterrier, from a script that’s been written by Fast & Furious director Justin Lin and Dan Mazeau. Alongside Diesel and Mirren, the film will star Michelle Rodriguez as Letty, Tyrese Gibson as Roman, Ludacris as Tej, Jordana Brewster as Mia, Charlize Theron as villain Cipher, and Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey. Fast X has also welcomed a few newcomers to this new instalment, namely The Suicide Squad’s Daniela Melchior, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson, and Titans’ Alan Ritchson, cast in undisclosed roles. Fast X is out in cinemas on May 19, 2023.

Peter Brook, the esteemed British director who inspired each new generation of theatre creatives to be more daring and experimental, has died at the age of 97. Brook was influential in Helen Mirren’s early career when she joined his newly-formed Conference of the Birds. In December 1972, Brook, Mirren and an international troupe of actors left their Paris base to emerge again in the Sahara desert (as pictured above during their morning meditation). It was the start of an 8,500-mile expedition through Africa without precedent in the history of theater. Brook was in search of a new beginning that has since been revealed in all his work – from Conference of the Birds and Carmen to The Mahabharata and beyond. After years of performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Mirren has often stated how the year with Brook has been a guiding light of finding her power as a performer. Peter Brook was 97.

During the tour with the Conference of the Birds, the company were in the Sahara when Helen noticed a rock with a “strange, dark hole”. Instinctively she stuck her finger into the hole, only for Peter Brook to snatch her finger away. “Don’t do it,” he told her. “You don’t know what might be in there.” For Helen, that summed up her personality. “I go rushing into situations where it would be much more sensible to stay cool and reserved,” she told me, explaining her love of the unexpected. (The Daily Mail, Philip Dodd, March 03, 2007)

Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson headline the upcoming coming-of-age film White Bird: A Wonder Story – and People has an exclusive first look at the moving trailer. The drama is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Wonder author R. J. Palacio, which was adapted into a 2017 film starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, and sparked a movement to “choose kind.” White Bird, the inspirational next chapter, follows Julian (Bryce Gheisar), who has struggled to belong ever since he was expelled from his former school for his treatment of Auggie Pullman. To help transform Julian’s life, the boy’s grandmother (Helen Mirren) tells him of her own story of courage – as a child in Nazi-occupied France, a boy sheltered her from danger. White Bird: A Wonder Story, with a screenplay by Mark Bomback, opens in theaters October 14. A first set of production stills have been added to the photo gallery.

Celebrating the launch of the streaming service in the UK and Ireland, Paramount Plus announced that the Yellowstone sequel series will now be titled “1923”, which will “explain the end of World War I (1918) and the beginning of Prohibition (1920), both of which will be woven into the story.” The show follows the Duttons “as they struggle to survive historic drought, lawlessness and prohibition, and an epidemic of cattle rustling.” In addition, they also have to deal with the “Great Depression of Montana,” which occurred a few years before the Great Depression of 1929. The show takes place 40 years after the popular Paramount Plus series 1883, which was the most watched series on Paramount Plus worldwide. The series will debut in December, although no further details have been announced at this time.